


keep me intact

by verity



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chess, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Partnership, Rebuilding, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 14:17:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/901262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last time Mako was inside Gipsy Danger was six months ago. She's standing over them in the mess now, cleaned and polished, already looking more statue than amazon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	keep me intact

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sophia_sol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophia_sol/gifts), [peardita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peardita/gifts).



> This is an AU where Gipsy Danger came back to the Earth side of the dimensional portal intact. Because.

Newt handpicks a bit of old slang to describe his friendship with Hermann. "Drifting, that kind of experience, it changes you," he says to Mako, slinging an arm over Hermann's shoulders. "We are bros now. Bros for life."

Hermann rolls his eyes and jabs at Newt's shoulder with his cane. "We are not _brothers_ ," he says.

Newt looks up at the kaiju specimen they're lowering through the ceiling of the lab and whistles jauntily.

—

At lunch, Raleigh saves Mako a seat and one of the fluffy yeast rolls with pineapple filling. "Thank you," she says, tearing a piece off, savoring the sweetness before she tucks into her bland lentil stew. "How was your journey to DC?"

Raleigh doesn't meet her eyes, but his lips curve into a smile. "Good, I think."

Gipsy Danger will be decommissioned formally at the end of year; the President of the United States wants to put her on what remains of Alcatraz Island so that she can stand guard over the reconstructed city like Rhodes's colossus. The last time Mako was inside Gipsy Danger was six months ago. She's standing over them in the mess now, cleaned and polished, already looking more statue than amazon.

"There's going to be a big ceremony," Raleigh says, following Mako's eyes. "Santiago will be there, and the veep. My parents, Christ."

Next to them, someone drops a fork.

"How terrible for you," Mako says drily.

—

Mako wouldn't be ready to step into her father's shoes even if they were still there for her to fill. The Jaeger project is over. Gipsy Danger is the only one to have survived, and she's crippled, her nuclear core ejected and detonated on the other side of the dimensional breach. Instead of preparing themselves for a comeback, another rift, the world has opted to celebrate. The Wall is abandoned and Hong Kong is rebuilding; Gipsy Danger will become the figurehead of a new age of peace and serenity.

There is still plenty to do, tying up loose ends, providing for the families of those lost in the last great push to close the portal, both civilian and military. Herc Hansen is the outward face of the Jaeger project, himself a newly bereaved parent; Mako takes on the paperwork, the daily reminders of her father around her inescapable and yet private. She uses his pens, keeps his spare medicine tins in her desk, organizing tacks and paperclips and all the minutia of office life. This is what he would want her to do. How wonderful he would find it, that she's survived: no monsters to menace her now.

—

"President Santiago thinks I should run for office," Raleigh says, later, when they're in his room, bent over their nightly game of chess. "She says Fred Krantz from Ohio is out next year, if I want to try for the House in mid-term elections."

"Hmm." Mako adjusts her pawn, rolls the head between her thumb and forefinger. "You are very charming. I am sure that would do you well."

Raleigh shrugs. "Winning doesn't have anything to do with governing. You know, the actual job."

"You could retire," Mako says. "Write a book, maybe, very touching, the story of you and Yancy and Gipsy—"

"Don't forget yourself." Raleigh slides his remaining bishop over, lining up one of her castles in his sights. "You're my partner."

"Right," Mako says as she surveys the board, looking for an opening. She nudges his knee with her own beneath the table. "Right."

—

There's nothing like Drifting, floating so close with someone that they become you, their rough edges eliding over your own in one seamless tectonic shift. Each subsequent Drift is like falling into a dream; each withdrawal like losing part of yourself, a connection that cannot be replaced by touch or taste, sight or sound or smell. Evidence: the closest Mako ever comes to the three Drifts she shared with Raleigh is when they are playing chess, opponents instead of components, each move adversarial instead of complementary. They move in sync, though, hearts and minds, and even their breaths fall into a smooth rhythm. Who wins is irrelevant. It is the interstice between that they wish to inhabit.

—

"I proposed to Hermann," Newt says over drinks one night. Mako likes to drink with Newt, because he doesn't have the sense to be afraid of her or kaiju or _baijiu_ , and she's also unlikely to get in a bar fight defending his honor. "He's thinking it over," Newt continues. "I mean—it would simplify so much. Academic jobs, man. You'd think we could get hired at any university in the world, but two positions _together_ —"

Mako gestures at the bartender for another bottle. "I understand, believe me."

"You and Raleigh should get married," Newt says. "Pretty sure everybody already thinks you're banging."

"Ugh." Mako pours a fresh cup of _baijiu_ and slams it down. The liquor burns the whole way down to her belly. "We are—what did you say?—we are bros. We are comrades in arms. It is—in the Drift—you know."

"Yeah." Newt smiles at her, sweet and soppy, swivels on his barstool so he can bump shoulders with her. "It's a lot simpler there."

Mako rubs her thumb against the smooth, warm porcelain of her cup, lets Newt fill it up again for her. On the TV over the bar, someone's talking about the destruction of the Wall, men and women taking to it together in Sydney with sledgehammers, the debris crumbling into the ocean. _A sign of hope for the people of Australia_ , the newscaster says in Cantonese. _Hope and freedom for the world._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [ladyofthelog](http://ladyofthelog.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


End file.
